If you’re serious about making money and consider yourself a true sports expert, live betting might be the perfect wagering option for you.
The reasons live betting has become so popular over the years are clear. It’s fun and interactive, more accessible than ever due to an abundance of online gambling platforms, and it allows you to find high-value plays in nearly every game.
Even those who don’t live bet regularly should consider giving it a try. In this article, I’ll lay out five reasons why you’re missing out if you aren’t top-rated live betting sites.
1. It’s Just More Fun
Some people gamble on sports as a way to make serious money. They put in hours and hours of research and develop complex strategies with advanced statistical models that most normal people wouldn’t understand. And then, there are the normal sports bettors.
It’s not so much that your everyday sports bettors aren’t interested in making money—they are—it’s just that there are other things at play. For most, that just means increased enjoyment of watching or following sports. In short, betting on games for fun is more likely to be the case than anything else.
Live betting, if you’re not familiar, is making bets during the game. What’s happening on the field dictates the odds, and the only that that is certain is that they can change significantly after one big play or momentum shift.
Making money live betting brings your knowledge of the games into a much higher focus. Those who are able to understand the flow of a game can better predict where it’s headed. Truly avid sports fans, who consider themselves students of the games, can use this to make a significant amount of money.
2. You Have Better Data
Before betting on any game, you should be doing research and gathering data that helps you come to a decision. In a way, live betting is no different with one notable exception: The data you use to help you make your plays comes from what you’ve just watched.
It can be hard to look at two teams on paper and attempt to predict how a game will play out. If you had the luxury of watching them compete in a quarter of live action, things might become a little bit clearer. With live betting, this luxury is inherent.
Keep in mind that it’s important to recognize that games go through momentum swings and change course all the time. If you’re immediately thinking about backing the team who scores first or looks like they’re going to dominate, be wary of inflated odds. Online sportsbooks know that bettors are guilty of recency bias and are likely to put too much stock in what happens in the early going.
To summarize, it’s important to look not just at the numbers or scoreboard but go deeper and see where each team has an advantage of disadvantage. It’s necessary to be watching a game you’re live betting so you can stay ahead of the betting public who isn’t tuned in and is susceptible to making uninformed decisions.
3. The Value Can Be Significant
If there’s one word that crosses over between all areas of business and eventually makes its way to sports gambling, it’s “value.”
To look at it in terms of its application regarding sports gambling, value is the idea of risking less money than you stand to gain.
An example of a low-value bet, and one which people fall victim to all the time, is the moneyline favorite. It sounds like a sure thing to put your money on a team at -280, but when you’re risking $280 to win $100, the price is simply too high. Upsets happen much more frequently than most people think, and losing bets like this can take a while to recover from.
Live betting provides excellent value if you can spot comebacks (or blowouts) before it becomes obvious that they’ll happen.
The caveat that must be noted when looking for value with live betting is that you absolutely have to be paying attention to the game. Sportsbooks make a great deal of money on situations like the scenario I laid out in the previous paragraph.
Bettors who haven’t watched, or at least not watched closely, might be more apt to think a blowout is coming and bet on the team that’s winning. On the flip side, those who were watching the game recognize that the score is very misleading.
If you want to do live betting the right way, simply tuning in and paying attention to the game will set you ahead of the public.
4. You Can Bet as You Go
Let’s say you’ve set aside $100 to bet on an NFL game. The most common bet would be to place your money on one of the teams prior to the game and see how it plays out. I would suggest that the play that will allow you get the most for your money would be to live bet each quarter along the way.
It can take some time to get used to the format, but betting on games a quarter at a time is a great way to maximize the excitement of betting as well as give yourself more opportunities to win. If you’ve never given it a shot, select one game on a football Saturday or Sunday and try betting it quarter by quarter.
5. It Makes You a Better Sports Bettor
If you bet on a game before it starts, whether or not you watch it play out isn’t going to have any impact on if you win or not. When you live bet, if you’re doing it correctly, you’re paying close attention to the action and how it impacts the numbers on the gambling side.
You’ll have certain revelations when live betting that you might not have noticed otherwise.
Once you become more familiar with live betting, you’ll have a much better understanding of how games progress and you can use this information to make decisions on games that you aren’t live betting. If you take it seriously enough, it can be a very helpful tool in growing as a sports gambler.
Conclusion
Live betting provides excitement and opportunities like few other types of sports bets. If you’ve never really committed to doing it the right way, I would suggest picking one football game each weekend to place a live wager at one of the top-rated NFL betting sites.
If you’re ready to take the leap, feel free to check out our page on the best sports betting sites that offer great odds for live betting. Our site also offers betting guides and different pages that provide information on becoming a profitable sports bettor.
Good luck with your wagers!
